This week there's amnesia on Downton Abbey, an extended flashback on Revenge and the superb season finale of Mad Men. Source: National Features

DIANNE Butler reviews and rates an assortment of drama, lifestyle and comedy shows airing on Australian TV this week. All times are EST.

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Wednesday 4 July

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* HOUSE,

Channel 10, 9.30pm

Rating: 3/5

ER did a CT - no AVM, BP OK. So why did a marriage guidance counsellor collapse, feverish, mid-public speech? Liver? MS? Low testosterone? They test for everything. House (Hugh Laurie) is half using the case as a test to find a deputy, a replacement for Foreman, and an early contender is Chi Park, who reveals she was called Bookie Monster at school. And did we know House has a wife? Russian, model looking, virtual stranger named Dominika? Not unexpectedly, Wilson is feeling a range of emotions about House's attitude to marriage.

* DUMB, DRUNK & RACIST,

ABC2, 9.30pm

Rating: 3/5

TONIGHT, Joe Hildebrand says, we venture into what Indians believe is one of the most dangerous cities in the world: Melbourne. Or, as he says, the most dangerous place in Australia. This is according to India's media, Hildebrand says. But he's not convinced crime is racially motivated; he thinks it's actually colour blind, and sets out to back this up. He dresses his four Indian guests in flak jackets, just in case.

* TEEN WOLF,

Fox8, 7.30pm

Rating: 3.5

ISAAC'S getting a D in chemistry, unimportant in the real world except it leads his psychotic father to deliver a beating that could've killed him except he's a teen wolf. But not a teen wolf like our lead teen wolf Scott McCall, who doesn't - or not yet - have the urge to rip people apart. Scott may find himself turning though, thanks to that problem sheriff. Who's also his secret girlfriend's father.

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Thursday 5 July

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* MAD MEN,

Movie Extra, Foxtel/Austar, 8.30pm

Rating: 4.5/5

AND suddenly Mad Men's over. Yet there are about 47 episodes of Randling still to go. Why? For the love of humanity, why? Don Draper (Jon Hamm) has a sore tooth. Oh, you could say it's buried guilt over the dead men he turned his back on, or maybe he's got cancer. But there is sadness tonight. For instance: "He realised that his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound." Realised? After five seasons? That's not Don. He's not the only one standing on the ledge.

* GREY'S ANATOMY,

Channel 7, 9pm

Rating: 2.5/5

AT last: Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) is acting chief, and the reaction from the others to his dynamic hair and pastry buffet is along the same scale as the time there was that sinkhole in downtown Seattle. The entire cast is there for the morning meeting (patients are subsisting on tubes), apart from Drs Hunt and Yang, who are at home reliving Dr Hunt's drunken extra-marital sex. And not in a good way.

* ISLAND FEAST WITH PETER KURAVITA,

SBS One, 8pm

Rating: 3/5

FACT: even if you decide to cook a lobster dinner on an active, category 2 volcano, you will still need to make a fire to use as an oven. Peter's on - or near, really - Mt Yasur, on Tanna Island, and he tells us that, according to locals, if he survives he'll be the first to have cooked anything up there. Spoiler alert: he lives. Just as theatrical is his knifework on the dead pig later.

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Friday July 6

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* NEIGHBOURS,

Eleven, 6.30pm

Rating: 2/5

I THINK Paul Robinson's newspaper power play would have more heft if he wasn't making his demands while wearing a bathrobe. He rallies tonight, manages to get a suit on and get down to the Erinsborough News office where he yells at Susan in front of everyone. But he seems unhinged, and the bathrobe may not be far off becoming a permanent fixture, in and out of the house. There's also a showdown looming over Kyle. According to the world, Jade is Kyle's girlfriend, but if you ask Keith from the Yarra Valley it's Kate.

* CAKE BOSS,

Lifestyle Food, 8.30pm

Rating: 3/5

BUDDY goes in hard for the start of the new season and tackles the Jersey Devil, New Jersey's version of the yowie. Local ghost hunters need a cake made of it, but as Buddy says, his big challenge is nobody knows what it looks like so what's he going to copy? Good point. And it explains the chocolate bat wings. They also spend three days making spumoni. It's kind of a high-end trifle.

* A SOUTH AMERICAN JOURNEY WITH JONATHAN DIMBLEBY,

SBS One, 7.30pm

Rating: 3/5

NOT exactly the celebrity travelogue we're used to, Dimbleby spends his time in Chile talking to people about life post-Pinochet, recalling his own visit 30 years earlier. The political chat keeps up in Bolivia, where Dimbleby, an engaged and intelligent participant, highlights low wages and conditions. He still fits in a horse ride, some wrestling, dancing and a bit of drinking.

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Saturday 7 July

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* BINDI'S BOOT CAMP,

ABC3, 5pm

Rating: 3/5

SUDDENLY little Bindi Irwin is a teenager big enough to stay upright while a huge Burmese python uses her as a coat-rack. She's also old enough to host her own TV series, a game show comprising three teams of two kids set in Bindi's backyard, Australia Zoo. It's like a mini Amazing Race, but instead of money they win glory. And knowledge - they have to answer questions to get anywhere. Plus the satisfaction of surviving the Croc Pit. It's pacey, and it's pretty to look at - nice gardens and plenty of animals: koalas, macaws, snakes, tigers, a wombat.

* ROCKWIZ,

SBS One, 8.30pm

Rating: 3.5/5

THEY don't really need the guests. Not really. Not with that band. And not when they're (name omitted to protect Rockwiz fans) and (and again) who I have nothing against, but nothing really for either. Or that's what I thought. But then (Big International Guest) comes out and she can still sing and she's very funny about Bob Dylan. Which is what you want in a guest.

* IN THE BEDROOM WITH DR LAURA BERMAN,

Lifestyle You, 8.30pm

Rating: 3/5

JUST from the name of this show I knew I was going to enjoy it. Not to take pleasure from Shayna and Dan's sexless marriage, but there are some killer lines. Dan: "My hand doesn't turn me on." They used to have sex, Shayna tells us when she's alone - "In different places," she adds obliquely.

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Sunday 8 July

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* DOWNTON ABBEY,

Channel 7, 8.30pm

Rating: 3/5

BOLD and the Beautiful, Home & Away, Downton Abbey: as fallback storylines go, you really cannot go wrong with amnesia. So is that it for Patrick Crawley/Gordon then? It's definitely it for Bates's wife. Talk is she committed suicide but anyone who met her knows the list of people lining up to knock her on the head is a mile long. Will this put Bates's job in jeopardy? Yes. But should it come to it, his talents as a valet would be highly sought after in the prison system. The real victim here is Carson (Jim Carter), reduced to carrying a tea tray.

* SPORTING NATION,

ABC1, 7.30pm

Rating: 3/5

EVERYONE'S got the craziest sports fans, says Harry Kewell, not just Australia. In fact, says Hugh Mackay, Australians are amateurs compared to some football zealots in Europe and South America. When did Australians start watching sport more than playing it? And gambling on the outcome? Lots of discussion about the psyche of the sport obsession. But the star tonight is Catherine Freeman,

* FAMILY GUY,

7Mate, 8.45pm

Rating: 4/5

IN an act of environmental terror, Peter's bought a ride-on mower, which leads to Mort Goldman losing his pharmacy. It's called the Butterfly Effect. It starts out innocuously - Quagmire's planting flowers, Joe's at a Vegas show seeing his favourite Cher impersonator - but deteriorates and the next thing we know Mort is being read the Jewish Miranda Rights. Look out for the twisted homage to I Love Lucy.

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Monday 9 July

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* REVENGE,

Channel 7, 8.30pm

Rating: 4/5

AN extended flashback tonight, reaching into the murky start of the century and the Grayson New Year's Eve party in 2002. No worries about how they are going to make Victoria Grayson look 10 years younger - the woman's fossilised. Handing out champagne is Amanda Clarke, who has yet to metamorphose into Emily Thorne and is therefore, as hired help, invisible to this crowd. But she's not there for the tips; she's trying to orchestrate a meeting with a man who thought her father had been stitched up, while he's sober enough - and alive enough - to talk to her.

* TRICKY BUSINESS

Channel 9, 8pm

Rating: 3/5

THE only hope this show has up against Revenge is it's got half an hour on it. But with The Block out of the way there's nothing propping it up now. Apart from the actors, obviously. And those lovely views down there on the NSW south coast. A racy old plot tonight, though is three cases a bit ambitious? Possibly. The business really needs only one big one. So do we.

* AMAZING RACE AUSTRALIA,

Channel 7, 7.30pm

Rating: 3/5

GEE that was a close call last week when Michelle thought she'd broken her neck "or something". Her non-existent injury didn't even require the use of a neck brace, always a good sight gag on TV. If I'm honest I'd have to say I was more worried about her fake tan and would it survive the Turkish bathhouse. Can't wait to see Grant Bowler as Richard Burton in Lindsay Lohan's Elizabeth Taylor telemovie.

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Tuesday 10 July

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* FAIRLY LEGAL,

Channel 7, 10.15pm

Rating: 2.5/5

A NEW series for you. Kate Reed is a mediator in the family law firm. She used to be a lawyer but gave it away out of altruism, hence she lives on a houseboat and wears lots of costume jewelry.

This is her first day back at work after her father's death. Sarah Shahi is gorgeous - anyone remember her from the end of The Sopranos and Tony's Vegas epiphany? - and she's bright and perky here, having fun with the cases (tonight a lost engagement ring and a poor v rich kid) but you've seen this all before.

* RACE TO LONDON,

ABC1, 8pm

Rating: 2.5/5

IF Michael Klim has to pay his way to Spain for three weeks of altitude training, how tight must things be for the others? Libby Trickett may not have to worry about a sponsor, but she has another problem - her weight. Ahmed Kelly is struggling with his drop-off rate over his second 25m. Ryley Batt seems the most ready: "I just want to hurt some people and get that gold medal."

* ARCHER,

ABC2, 9pm

Rating: 4/5

MEGA-arms dealer Skorpio is holed up on the Riviera with scary missiles and Lana, capable glamour spy and Archer's ex. Skorpio is hairy and overweight but he has a je ne sais quoi that prompts Archer to hotfoot it to France. In addition, he's getting pressure from his boss (his mother) to have a vasectomy. He's also counting on the bounty on Skorpio being high enough for him to redo his kitchen.

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